READI Chicago is an innovative response to gun violence in our city, providing an unprecedented model of mental health and workforce development supports to men at the very highest risk. As a unique model, READI’s focus on contributing to public health and increased community safety has important implications on a national scale.

When COVID-19 became the global focus of public safety thinking, we focused on the immediate impact on our communities served by street outreach and re-entry programs. To address the emerging challenges of the changing landscape of violence prevention, workforce development, and re-entry services, we joined forces to leverage our networks and engage a group of peers, partners, and allies to form a cross-country coalition.

As a result, Heartland Alliance, READI Chicago, Art of Social Impact Consulting, and other partners launched the National Coalition for Gun Violence Interventions. The Coalition includes experts, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who work through a public health approach to ensure that individuals, families, and whole communities can thrive by preventing and ending gun violence and gun-related deaths nationwide.

Ultimately, the Coalition hopes to spur a reduction in gun violence, incarceration, and legal system involvement, and instead increase use of best practices and proven methods of connection to meaningful opportunities and services. Since the group launched at the beginning of the pandemic, over 28 organizations from 15 cities have joined, helping to advise President Biden’s transition teams to set priorities around addressing gun violence. The group participated in national listening session and submitted policy recommendations, paving the way for a $5.6 billion potential investment in our collective work through the American Jobs Plan.

We know that there is no single solution to gun violence—only through local, state, and national collaboration can we work toward safer communities to save more lives. As a first step, the National Coalition for Gun Violence Interventions is working to share best practices to support violence interventions; increase community engagement through virtual and in-person rallies, public events, and more; and to enlist members to serve on a community organizing advisory board to influence policy and funding decisions.

Coalition Partners:

As part of the American Jobs Plan’s focus on investing in workforce development, President Biden called on Congress to invest $5 billion in support of evidence-based community violence prevention programs—programs like READI Chicago—and to invest in job training for formerly incarcerated individuals, like the men we serve.

Never before has the federal government taken such significant steps to invest in communities of color disproportionately impacted by gun violence—a leading cause of death for young Black men in Chicago. We’ve seen firsthand in READI Chicago the many ways that a lack of community safety can keep someone from finding housing, traveling safely to work, or safely supporting their families. Elevating and prioritizing the safety and humanity of the men we serve is critical to achieving racial equity, and this funding is an important first step in continuing that fight.

This announcement is a culmination of the hard work of our partners and stakeholders who have elevated the voices of READI Chicago participants and our program, every day, locally and nationally—our participants, funders, community-based partners, and elected officials. Together and through your support, we are demonstrating the value of investments and how they can save lives.

This was an important first step in eliminating gun violence and investing in communities, but we have more work to do in securing the $5 billion investment and ensuring it saves as many lives as possible. We need to ensure our resources are targeted toward the people who need them most—those at the very highest risk of being involved in violence. We need to invest in evidence-based programs to ensure we are providing comprehensive, trauma-informed supports that will have the greatest impact; and we need to build capacity in communities to promote sustained community safety and opportunity for all.

At READI Chicago, we see opening access to economic opportunity as key to increasing community safety and combatting decades of disinvestment in the neighborhoods we serve. Since the initiative launched in 2017, READI has invested more than $20 million into our community-based partner organizations to help communities build capacity from within, and has paid more than $9.5 million directly to participants through wages and stipends.

This Financial Literacy Month, we wanted to recognize the critical role of financial literacy in building a foundation for a safer, more stable life, and the critical ways our staff work with participants to build a financial foundation through professional development and individual coaching.

“We’re trying to help these men build a foundation by giving them cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—getting them to think differently—and then by developing the skills to go into the workforce and be confident and responsible about it,” said Taj McCord, a job coach with Centers for New Horizons for READI Chicago Englewood. “There’s no foundation if you don’t address the financial part—that ends up being the reason a lot of guys end up in the streets. With the skills we teach in CBT, they end up weighing their options and deciding it’s more important for them to find balance in their lives and work toward financial independence.”

Taj said he and his fellow coaches cover a variety of different levels of financial literacy in order to meet participants where they are and help them work toward self-identified goals. Some groups start at the beginning, with how to open a checking account, the difference between a debit and credit card, and how to create a budget. For participants more familiar with financial literacy, staff discuss things like investments, entrepreneurship, or business models.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and specifically the resulting stimulus checks, presented a unique opportunity for many participants, Taj said, as participants began approaching him with questions about business opportunities or property investments. One participant, after consulting Taj and putting together a plan, purchased a number of vending machines and is now working to build relationships with businesses who might need one.

“The mindset, just seeing them start to think differently, is the most important part for me,” Taj said. “Guys begin asking a lot more questions about financial literacy on their own, and what they should be doing with their money, and that tells me they’re absorbing and using the things we talk about in CBT and these sessions.”

“You can feel the tide changing around here,” said Michael Brunson, an Institute for Nonviolence Chicago (INVC) outreach worker at the READI Chicago Austin/West Garfield Park community site. “The new guys we’re bringing into the program have already watched their friends go through READI and seen it work for them. They’re a lot less skeptical than when we launched this initiative—they’ve seen that other places offer support, but we offer a future.”

For Michael, who has worked as an INVC outreach worker since READI launched in 2017, that means identifying participant needs and connecting them with supports. It also means infusing cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and a focus on changing thinking patterns in all interactions with participants. This, Michael said, is how READI and INVC are doing outreach differently.

“You can’t just tell someone, ‘you need to stop doing that’—they’re not going to listen, and they probably already know that,” Michael said. “But if you work with them to change their way of thinking, that will stick with them long-term and help them change their actions.”

Michael knows this firsthand, having so many shared experiences with our participants. For more than 50 years, he has lived in West Garfield Park, where he said gun violence is unavoidable. He also spent more than a decade incarcerated.

“It was difficult when I came home from incarceration, but my family made it a lot easier—they’re so important in keeping you focused and eliminating obstacles,” Michael said. “It’s so important for us to be that support for our participants who may not have family to rely on. We’re here to help them realize their dream and build the foundation to get there.”

Michael is not new to mentoring and working with community members, having become a fixture of West Garfield Park and Austin, but he said he has never found work as rewarding as that with READI Chicago.

“We offer them a different way of life, and seeing them embrace that and change their lives around really brings tears to my eyes,” Michael said. “It’s a wonderful feeling to have them run up and greet you and share how happy and proud they are of themselves. You get to really see firsthand the work you’re doing when you have guys who are now on a different path coming back to tell you that it worked.”

At the core of our work at Heartland Alliance is the belief that equitable access to safety and justice, health and healing, and economic opportunity can help people lead happy, healthy, and dignified lives. Among participants in READI Chicago, access to these human rights is especially critical for those who have been recently incarcerated, as access is so often lacking when an individual returns from incarceration.

Of men referred to READI Chicago, more than one-third are on parole. Of all READI Chicago participants:

• 96% have been arrested
• 63% have served time in prison
• 46% have been a victim of violence
• 34% have been shot at least one time.

READI is familiar with the unique challenges facing this population, seeing firsthand the gap in services needed for people to be successful after incarceration.

“There just aren’t enough pre-release re-entry services out there—it’s especially not enough for people who are at high risk of gun violence involvement,” READI Chicago Re-entry Program Manager Sophia Manuel said. “That means when people walk out of the door of a jail or prison, they may not know how they’re going to get their medication refilled, or how they’re going to get their ID back, or where they’re going to sleep or earn money that’s safe.”

Since shortly after READI Chicago launched, outreach workers have engaged people leaving incarceration through the re-entry referral pathway into the program. However, READI staff quickly began to recognize the unique barriers and need for supports that people face after incarceration.

“We started by just opening the door, but as we’ve evolved, we’ve created some systematized and intentional ways of making sure we support this population adequately,” Sophia said. “A lot of places don’t want or are just not equipped to work with people who have violent offenses and are at high risk of future involvement, but we’re showing that you can release people—with supports—and they will stay safe if they have what they need.”

READI Chicago works to make sure people can meet those needs—whether that means connection to housing, advocacy to parole agents, or writing letters to participants who are incarcerated—by beginning work with potential participants as early as possible. READI staff currently work inside jails—and hope to start working inside prisons—to build relationships, deliver cognitive behavioral therapy, and begin re-entry case planning.

“We’re here to support these guys, help them get what they need and become self-sufficient citizens,” UCAN READI Outreach Supervisor Patrick Daniels said. “These are people who aren’t looking to go back to jail, and that’s why we’re here.”